Swedish metal act Anachronaeon is currently in the process of working on a fourth full-length album titled "The Ethereal Throne," which is slated for release later this year through Stygian Crypt Productions. As the band is putting the finishing touches on the latest release, vocalist Patrik Carlsson corresponded with Metalunderground to discuss the band's history and the new album.

Explaining the meaning behind the band's distinctive name, Patrik stated, "It derives from the words 'anachronism' and 'aeon' which put together basically means that there is something odd with the times we live in. In the year 2011 religion still enslaves a vast number of people. People do whatever it takes to fulfill themselves on the expense of others. People never cook at home but television still shows like 150 different cooking shows. People live such shallow lives that they'd rather shoot botox into their skulls rather than taking a minute to think about why we are here and how to make this world last long enough for our children to take part of it."

Patrik also went on to discuss getting set up with Stygian Crypt, the local metal scene in Västerås, and the recording process for "The Ethereal Throne."

xFiruath: Tell me a bit about the history of Anachronaeon. When did the band form, how do the members know each other, and what has the band done so far?

Patrik: Anachronaeon came to be from the ashes of the band Human Failure, that was formed on the initiative of drummer Andreas Åkerlind in 2002. We both played together in a band called Eternally Devoured that split up after two demos because of musical differences. Andreas felt that he and I had a lot in common, so he asked me if I wanted to do something with him. So we recorded the "Human Failure" demo, that can be downloaded for free on our myspace, which was just a fun test of our creativity. We wrote and recorded a song each time we rehearsed. After this I felt that we should go a little more epic, which is typically my style of writing. In 2003 we released the "Tales from a hollow eternity" demo under the name Human Failure, but the same week we discovered that the name was taken by some German band, so we changed our name into Anachronaeon. We wanted something odd that we could have to our own, but we still wanted it to mean something. It derives from the words "anachronism" and "aeon" which put together basically means that there is something odd with the times we live in. In the year 2011 religion still enslaves a vast number of people. People do whatever it takes to fulfill themselves on the expense of others. People never cook at home but television still shows like 150 different cooking shows. People live such shallow lives that they'd rather shoot botox into their skulls rather than taking a minute to think about why we are here and how to make this world last long enough for our children to take part of it.

People fill their inner void by escaping reality for a while by cutting themselves, attempting suicide, taking drugs, eating too much, drown into the world of movies/computer games or music to take their lives bearable. Basically to ignore the world that makes no sense to them. It's like modern man walks along a path with shut eyes. We have more knowledge about things now than ever and the world is still a dark and horrible place. We are truly living in the Anachronaeon. I would like to point out that I'm not standing on a moral high ground here. These are just my observations in trying to understand - through myself and others - why the world is like this and why we are here. Misanthropy and the human flaws are subjects that we return to, and why? Just pick up a magazine and you have material for like 10 albums if you angle things right. This is not how I want the world to be.

To this day we have released "As The Last Human Spot in Me Dies" (recorded as a demo in 2004, released by Stygian Crypt in 2007), "The New Dawn" (recorded as a demo in 2005, released by Stygian Crypt in 2007), "The Futile Quest for Immortality"(released by Stygian Crypt in 2010, the first release that we did not record as a demo). We have also released a black metal album under the name Eyecult, entitled "Morituri te salutamus“ (2009, Ewiges Eis Records), and the upcoming Anachronaeon album "The Ethereal Throne" is on its way this year.

xFiruath: When did you guys get hooked up with Stygian Crypt Productions?

Patrik: In 2005, a little after we finished "The New Dawn," a fan from Russia named Denis wanted to trade all our demos. He liked them a lot and wondered if he could make copies of the demos to promote us. We'd never gained any help before so of course we let him. Within two weeks after the question he returned and said that Stygian Crypt Productions was interested in releasing our material, mainly "As the last human spot in me dies" which they had read about in Fatal Forum, a Russian/Ukrainian underground zine.

xFiruath: How do you approach writing music and when were the tracks written for your upcoming album “The Ethereal Throne?”

Patrik: This album was written between the fall of 2008 and the summer of 2009, and recorded on Sundays in the Anachronaeon Lair between October 2009 to June 2010. This may seem like a long time, but we only get together on Sundays and record for about three hours at the time. We both have full time jobs, and I have kids so that's just our constant working pace. Since it's conceptual I wrote all of the lyrics first, then I wrote the music with the lyrics in front of me. I think when it comes to a concept it is important that the music reflects the mood in the lyrics, that's why the songs of the album have pretty different feel, although I think it's our darkest album to date.

xFiruath: Tell me more about the recording process for the album.

Patrik: The Anachronaeon Lair is what we call our little studio. We've actually had plenty of bad luck with this recording. Not performance-wise since we are pretty descent musicians, but technology-wise. The studio computer totally died at the end of the recording sessions, so we had to extract all data to a borrowed computer only to find out that our sound card did not work well with that computer. We also had a soundcard breakdown which took us some time to fix. Obviously some higher power did not want this album released. Well, it's not out yet, so we'll see hahaha!

xFiruath: What’s different about this album from anything you guys have done in the past?

Patrik: Every record that we've made is unlike the other. "As the last human spot in me dies" was our "power metal record" with the majority of clean vocals. "The New Dawn" was our first attempt at a conceptual album, and it was more progressive. "The Futile Quest for Immortality" has more of a melodic death metal approach with a heavy metal base, and a black metal attitude with lots of open chord rhythm guitars. "The Ethereal Throne" is our second conceptual album, and I've taken what I think were mistakes about "The New Dawn" when it comes to storytelling and such and in my opinion improved that. Also it's the album with most extreme metal influences, there are no clean vocals on this one, even though the typical Anachronaeon characteristics and trademarks are there.

xFiruath: What do your lyrics generally deal with and do you keep up a constant theme on the various tracks of any given album?

Patrik: It can really be about anything that I feel is interesting. Most of all and the red thread is the world we live in and the human flaws you see around yourself every day. My own flaws as well of course. When I write a concept I always start with the main point, and think about how I can get it across. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. Not many people have understood that the main topic in "The New Dawn" was about the ongoing cloning debate at the time. The aliens are not really the main thing, although many people seem to think so. A few fans have understood it and e-mailed me about it, which was cool. After I've written down the main event I work it out and spread it over in this case eight songs. One is instrumental. It is always hard, but in the end I get it done. I try to be meticulous with every phrase, but it should also have the right rhythm without rhyming in total clichés like in a pop-song-way.

xFiruath: Is the band solely doing studio work at this time or are you playing live shows as well?

Patrik: We are a studio band only nowadays. We played live once in 2004 and it was caught on video by a friend and his handicam. There are many reasons as to why we are a studio band. I have two kids, and being an absent father on tour is not exactly how I want them to remember their childhood. Both Andreas and I work full time, and this genre is not exactly pouring gold into its artist’s pockets, which of course is completely OK, we don't do this for money. If anything Anachronaeon is always an expense for us, but nourishment for the soul. There's also the integrity aspect. We don't let just about into our band. We wanna have creative control. Plus in Västerås all the good musicians are taken or play in 3,000 bands. We don't want a band whore.

xFiruath: What’s your local metal scene like?

Patrik: There are some metal bands from Västerås that you might heard about. I can mention Axenstar, Godhate, Vilefuck, and Zavod for example. Every time a large band comes to do concerts in Västerås I see one of more guys from these bands there. But I don't keep so much track of local talent nowadays, other than the bands I mentioned.

xFiruath: Seen anything crazy or interesting lately at a show, either that you played or were just attending?

Patrik: Not really anything crazy, but when I got to meet Nergal and Behemoth backstage when they played in Västerås a couple of years ago was really cool. And the last show on a local stage before it was turned into a shopping mall here in Västerås called Prisma when Naglfar and Dark Funeral played was pretty damn awesome. Also a little club gig when Evergrey had just released "In Search of Truth" was really good!

xFiruath: What bands do you personally listen to?

Patrik: I listen to a variety of music, mainly metal. What goes hot in my stereo right now is everything by Belphegor, everything by Nevermore, Bane from Serbia, a young and upcoming band that you'll hear more of in a while, be sure. Nefertum, a melodic BM band from Italy, especially their cover of Ye Entrancempirium gives me goose bumps. Abigail Williams, Emperor, early Dark Funeral, Blackmore's Night, Abigor, A Canorous Quintet, Vital Remains, Katatonia's latest release, Behemoth, Nile, Opeth, Symphony X. I also have a weak spot for Blind Guardian, especially their older stuff, 1349, Dissection, Ayreon, I could go on forever dude, stop me.

xFiruath: Anything else you’d like to discuss?

Patrik: Not that I can think of right now, but if you as a reader have more questions, just write us. I always respond. And if you haven't heard us and you are tired of being fed overproduced superficial metal you can always lend us an ear.

Ty Arthur is a freelance writer who writes for both entertainment and technical instruction sites. An avid fan of many different forms of metal, he has been involved in reviewing music for several years and is currently a contributing editor for Metalunderground.com